The sovereignty of Christ from the cross is a new sovereignty. It has destroyed forever the formula that might is right. It has put to shame the self-assertion of false heroism. It has surrounded with imperishable dignity the completeness of sacrifice. It has made clear to the pure heart that the prerogative of authority is wider service. The divine King rules forever by dying.
~Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901)
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Philippians 2
The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, in Luke 10
Oh beloved, it is true. Most of us come to the cross. Some of us reckon true the death our old selves died with Him. And then, the vast majority of us miss the simplest part of the whole exchange He has wrought in our lives.
We are now alive – completely, utterly, totally Alive – in Him.
And this changes everything. For the aliveness in Him spoken of in His Word and in our spirits is not the reanimation of the fallen humans we were, but the re-creation of a being now fully human. The real human being is one who is one (read completely one) with the One who created him. We are no frail flesh, though the fleshly tent in which we dwell will one day fail, the person we are is already now living in eternal Life with Him.
As the poets and the Word have said.
We are real.
We are ageless.
We are gods (and YES, note the lower case, EVER under the Authority of the One who was, and is, and is to come.)
We are wise.
We are true.
We are noble.
We are drenched in a joy which gives us cosmic and unending strength to fight and win the battles we now wage in this world.
We live and move and have our being in Him.
We are His offspring.
In this exchange which Christ wrought through His life, death, and resurrection, the new Life we have in Him is eternal. We are not, now, just people who are going to live very long lives, under very good circumstances, in heaven someday. We are, in fact, one with the G_d of the universe through His righteous and just invitation and provision.
So, to say it even more simply, G_d is not on the other side of some veil. Eternity and heaven is not time on some amazingly grander scale. Eternity is already within Him. And He is already within us.
He is eternal life. Life in Him is not a quantity of years. Eternal Life is a quality of existence in relationship with Him which transcends time. Time will be contained WITHIN our relationship with Him. We are not constrained to endless years with Him, walking down some path gazing into some endless future. No, we are to be so one with Him so as to be those who actually reign over time and space itself.
Can we see it? It is dreadful – and profound in implication. The power with which we operate is infinite. It is not our power – it is Him working His power in us and through us. We no longer live and try to squeak out commands to the powers at work against us. We yield to the Power at work within us, and speak It forth as led by Him.
So, in things like spiritual battle, when we battle in prayer – it avails much. We do not have to keep wrenching our souls in prayer, for the authority that flows from us in Spirit-led prayer is infinite in strength, complete in Authority, and not constrained by time. The demon may scream the lies that it will be back, or try to negotiate a settlement other than being cast into the abyss. But the outcome is not in doubt, and it is not subject to change. Spiritual battle does not wax and wane based on how hard we pray.
No, rather, spiritual battle succeeds or fails based on our faithful application of the only Power able to win the fight. Anything we do in our own power will be met with powers of darkness that know very well how to eat a man for lunch. However, any prayer we speak in yielded assurance of His leading has no chance to fail (read zero) ever.
And yet, this is really the point. Even spiritual battle is insignificant in comparison to being one with Him. Jesus is saying, in effect, “duh,” to the disciples. As in, “of course you have power over demons, why are you even surprised? What should really move you kids, is the Source of the power at work within in you – and what that means for you and I – forever.”
We beloved, you who truly believe along with this fool of a writer, are Alive in Christ. And this is very good news. It is news that will take at least forever to digest. Let us rejoice that we get to start right now!
